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About this quote

What does it mean?
Happiness shares qualities with religion and resists purely logical explanation.
In plain terms
Happiness is mysterious and cannot be fully explained by reason.
What can you take from it?
Accept that some things, like happiness, are beyond logic.

Where it applies

  • seeking meaning
  • personal fulfillment
  • philosophical inquiry

Putting it to work

  • Value experience over explanation
  • Embrace mystery in life

Questions to consider

  • Can happiness be defined?
  • Is logic enough for life?

Another view

Reason can still improve conditions that lead to happiness.

More from Gilbert Keith Chesterton

  1. We ought to see far enough into a hypocrite to see even his sincerity.

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  2. Every man speaks of public opinion, and means by public opinion, public opinion minus his opinion.

    Permalink to quote #82
  3. The rolling stone rolls echoing from rock to rock; but the rolling stone is dead. The moss is silent because the moss is alive.

    Permalink to quote #79

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